Plastics Technology

FEB 2018

Plastics Technology - Dedicated to improving Plastics Processing.

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Salvage costly parts with surface imperfections with our permanent fl aw repair touch-up coatings. In 60-seconds, Per-Fix instantly repairs the most common visual part defects including knit / fl ow lines, gloss imperfections, splay and many others. A wide variety of gloss levels are available for PP, ABS, Styrene/PC, Vinyl and Nylon substrates. VISIT US SOUTH HALL, LEVEL 1, S30102 Per-Fix ® Clear Transparent coating to fi x light to medium fl aws. Free evaluation kit. Per-Fix ® Black For deeper fl aw repairs. Free evaluation kit. Per-Fix ® Color Match Custom formulated based on full-color analysis of existing products. Free sample match. SPRAY-ON PERFECTION Reduce scrap and improve quality with Per-Fix ® specialty fl aw repair coatings. 800-336-9828 • chem-pak.com info@chem-pak.com REAL-TIME FIRST-ARTICLE INSPECTION World-class metrology and a high-capacity data network add up to what Hoskins considers to be his firm's key strategic advantage: "real-time first-article inspection." This requires some explanation: A CT scan takes 1 hr for each of 32 cavities: That's 32 hr to collect the data. According to Wigton, it then usually takes weeks more to process the "point cloud" of data and resolve it into dimensional measurements. "That's weeks to obtain usable data— versus 5 minutes for us." He says there was no software available to do this, so Octex wrote its own. So "real-time" in this case means, "As fast as we can scan, we can get usable data. We can load all 32 point clouds and 10 sec later, we start getting measurements." This is the key to competitiveness for Octex. Says Hoskins, "I can't fight somebody who has nine plants and 2000 machines. But I can do things nobody else can. Others just want the manufacturing part; they see validation as a nuisance. For us it's a core strategy." Adds Wigton, "We have competitors in molding, in metrology, in tooling. But not all three together. That means we can do all the qualifications here, so the customer gets into production faster." "And what do customers really want?" asks Hoskins. "To get new, innovative products to market faster than ever before." ACCELERATED LAUNCH PROCESS These synergistic capabilities—tooling, molding, and metrology— have led Octex Group to propose a new paradigm for product launches. Called Launchpad, Octex claims it can offer 40-90% reduction in tool-build time, 45-75% reduction in tool cost, and 60% reduction in time to market. The usual process can easily take 45 weeks from the start of design validation through production tool build, tool quali- fication, and production process and validation development. With the new process, spearheaded by Omnia Scientific, that process can be collapsed to 30-35 weeks. The difference, Hoskins explains, is that the different phases of the launch process are typically handled by different groups with different cultures—resulting in "loss of fidelity," as Hoskins puts it. "But we have all the pieces of the puzzle under our roof. So we can conduct different phases concurrently. Our goal is to compress the usual eight- to 12-week tool-build process into just three weeks. This is what OEMs have been begging for." Octex plans to introduce Launchpad in May at NPE2018 in Orlando, Fla. "We get hundreds of millions of chances every year to save or improve someone's life." @plastechmag 61 Plastics Technology On-Site Octex Group

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